Greatest Metal Songs or: Metal Through the Ages (Ranked By Year)
I'm bored so I decided to make a Greatest Metal Songs list, God forgive me. Some songs are dated and some are still fresh, point is everyone's tastes are different. Tried my best to remain partial so I ended up given some bands I don't particularly like (Manowar, Nile etc.). Songs here are the ones I thought influenced the genres the most so not all bands here are exclusively metal but this isn't a greatest band list keep that in mind. Ranked these by the year each were released so no one bitches about who shouldn't have been #1... but thats probably a moot point seeing as how metal heads are such pleasant and calmly individuals as we are. Behave you! |
1 | Blue Cheer Second Time Around |
2 | Steppenwolf Born to Be Wild |
3 | Vanilla Fudge Shotgun |
4 | Led Zeppelin Communication Breakdown |
5 | MC5 Starship |
6 | Pink Floyd The Nile Song |
7 | Uriah Heep Gypsy |
8 | Black Sabbath Black Sabbath
the song Black Sabbath by the band Black Sabbath from their album Black Sabbath |
9 | Alice Cooper School's Out |
10 | Deep Purple Highway Star |
11 | Night Sun Got a Bone of My Own |
12 | JPT Scare Band Sleeping Sickness |
13 | Budgie Breadfan |
14 | Blue Oyster Cult Flaming Telepaths |
15 | Queen Stone Cold Crazy
Metal's not the first thing that pops to head when you hear Queen, but you give them their propers when the release the first ever thrash metal song close to a decade before Metallica. |
16 | UFO Rock Bottom |
17 | Scorpions Top of the Bill |
18 | Judas Priest Victim of Changes |
19 | Rainbow Stargazer |
20 | Thin Lizzy The Boys Are Back in Town |
21 | AC/DC Whole Lotta Rosie |
22 | Van Halen Runnin' with the Devil |
23 | Diamond Head Am I Evil? |
24 | Motorhead Ace of Spades |
25 | Ozzy Osbourne Mr. Crowley |
26 | Saxon Wheels of Steel |
27 | Def Leppard Let It Go |
28 | Venom Witching Hour |
29 | Accept Fast as a Shark |
30 | Iron Maiden Hallowed Be Thy Name |
31 | Manowar Death Tone |
32 | Dio Holy Diver |
33 | Holocaust The Small Hours |
34 | Quiet Riot Metal Health (Bang Your Head) |
35 | Mercyful Fate The Oath |
36 | Celtic Frost Circle Of The Tyrants |
37 | Exodus A Lesson in Violence |
38 | Possessed The Exorcist |
39 | Metallica Master of Puppets |
40 | Slayer Raining Blood |
41 | Anthrax Caught in a Mosh |
42 | Candlemass Samarithan |
43 | Destruction Mad Butcher |
44 | Helloween Halloween |
45 | Bathory A Fine Day to Die |
46 | Guns N' Roses Welcome to the Jungle |
47 | Danzig Mother |
48 | Fates Warning Anarchy Divine |
49 | Morbid Angel Chapel of Ghouls |
50 | Queensryche Eyes of a Stranger |
51 | King's X Over My Head |
52 | Kreator Bterayer |
53 | Motley Crue Dr. Feelgood |
54 | Overkill Elimination |
55 | Savatage Gutter Ballet |
56 | Annihilator The Fun Palace |
57 | Megadeth Holy Wars... The Punishment Due |
58 | Pantera Cemetery Gates |
59 | Paradise Lost Eternal |
60 | Testament Souls of Black |
61 | Melvins Boris |
62 | Sepultura Arise |
63 | Soundgarden Jesus Christ Pose |
64 | Alice in Chains Them Bones |
65 | Blind Guardian Journey Through the Dark |
66 | Cannibal Corpse Hammer Smashed Face
Badass song... but every time i hear this I think of Ace Ventura |
67 | Dream Theater Pull Me Under
My personal fav is This Dying Soul but this seems to be more popular. |
68 | Rage Against the Machine Killing In The Name Of |
69 | Cynic I'm But a Wave to... |
70 | Death The Philosopher |
71 | Japan X Art of Life |
72 | Korn Shoots and Ladders
Korn was the king of creepy in mid 90's. |
73 | Machine Head Davidian |
74 | Mayhem Freezing Moon |
75 | Prong Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck |
76 | At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul |
77 | Down Stone the Crow |
78 | Fear Factory Replica
A landmark of '90s metal which most definitely influenced Meshuggah. |
79 | Iced Earth Dante's Inferno |
80 | White Zombie Super-Charger Heaven
Insipientia corde suo, non es deus. Non est vita qui adorem, non es usque ad unum. Es excommunicatus, exe fidelium. |
81 | Burzum Jesu D?d
A single riff, repeated over and over and over... and it rocks! |
82 | Type O Negative Love You to Death |
83 | Deftones My Own Summer (Shove It) |
84 | Symphony X The Divine Wings of Tragedy |
85 | Disturbed Down with the Sickness
This song's been done to death in pop culture... |
86 | Halford Resurrection
Former Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford returned to his metal roots in with this and thank God for it. |
87 | Converge Jane Doe
Layered chaotic guitars with Jakob Bannon's chorus gives it a apocalyptic vibe. A modern masterpiece. |
88 | Opeth Blackwater Park
Opeth's magnum opus. |
89 | Slipknot Disasterpiece
"I wanna slit your throat and fuck the wound".... grrr! It's ridiculous that 9 grown men to extensively tour the world in Halloween costumes but you gotta cut them some slack. They produce some good songs every now and then. |
90 | Children Of Bodom Needled 24/7 |
91 | Vital Remains Dechristianize |
92 | Lamb of God Laid to Rest
Thanks to guitar hero, thousands learn to shred to LOG. So far non comes close. |
93 | Mastodon Blood and Thunder
A heavy metal tribute to Moby Dick. That is all. |
94 | Avenged Sevenfold Beast and the Harlot
Great riff. Fun song to jam to. |
95 | Agalloch Falling Snow
Probably the greatest American black metal band Agalloch always delivers. This is just a beautiful song. |
96 | ArtCell Aniket Prantor
This is a great prog metal band from my home country of Bangladesh. The song is entirely in bangla, but as it's length is 16:20 and most of that is filled with dazzling guitar works non bangla speakers probably wouldn't be put off or disappointed. |
97 | Tool Vicarious
A commentary on the violence we see on the tele and how others pain whether real or fictional actually gets us off. Tool may have better songs but this is the heaviest they ever delivered. |
98 | Nile The Language of the Shadows
Not much to say...except that it's pretty damn loud...I mean it's like they went out of their way to piss people off. |
99 | Otep Communion
The whole angst ridden metal scene was never really got much respect from old school metal heads so Otep gets a lot of hate. It's a pity because she really is one of the best metal song writers right now and she's got great voice to match it. Communion is a very underrated song because it's got everything : great guitar riff, bass lick and drum beat not to mention Otep's creepy ass vocals. |
100 | Meshuggah Combustion
The mathematical madness of Thordendal 8 string riff drives this song. Almost lost respect of Haake for using a drum machine but after viewing a live performance I'm blown away. Poly metered structure at it's best. |
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